Friday, March 7, 2014

The Tomorrow People, Season 1, Episode 15: The Enemy of my Enemy

Ultra raided by an angry Paranormal who causes a bit of
chaos before being tased and dropped. It’s Julian.
Well that was productive.

And John is still staying at Steven’s and being a
surprisingly good cook; in between praising his food and mocking the idea of a
man cooking for another man (y’know jokes like that are always going to be
shaky, but are only worse on a show that hasn’t decided to acknowledge GBLT
people exist) Steven wants John and Cara back together, working together etc
etc.

Which leads to Charlotte
talking to both John and Cara telepathically with a whole lot of wanting John
back. Cara comes up with the bizarre non-sequiter “you can’t bring someone in
unless they’re ready.” Um… I don’t think John is “not ready” to join a group he
appeared to have founded

It doesn’t have to make sense because it’s a clumsy lead
in for a flashback to 3 years ago when Cara and John first met on the subway
and he stopped her stealing his watch and confronted her about her powers and
telling her about The Tomorrow People.

Meanwhile, Steven visits Astrid (she has been allowed out
of the plot box!) who doesn’t really believe all his assurances that all is
safe and quickly gets rid of him.

And at Ultra it seems Julian has effectively turned
himself in so he can offer a deal to Jedikiah to get Cara. There all the plot
lines have been set up onwards to some plot please.

Cara and Russell are planning a supply run (and telling
Charlotte she can’t come) when Steven passes on the news about Julian being
captured – but not the deal. Back to Julian who sells why he will do a much
better job of finding the Tomorrow People (and he calls Cara a “shifty little
minx” which I can’t even begin to grasp – did we teleport back to the 1920s?),
he’s sure he can do it because he taught Cara everything she knows, apparently.
Jedikiah responds by having a chip injected up his nose. It’s a bomb – he brings
in Cara et al on time or it blows up.

One of these days people are going to realise that making
deals with Jedikiah is a bad idea and that the bad guy is, y’know, a bad guy.

Astrid calls Steven on Skype – and gets a shirtless John
instead, but she has issues to talk out and he’s willing to listen – and come
over so she can talk to him since she’s having problems going out after her
experiences. (John teleports over for her convenience and a reminder that she’s
silly because the bad guys can get her anywhere! No, not really but that’s only
because Tomorrow People doesn’t think
these things through) She talks through her fears – and fears of being around
Steven – and John plans to be reassuring, comforting and help…

…and lead into another flashback with a nervous Cara –
who said no to John’s kind offer of joining him since she’d already been burned
with Julian

In the present Steven learns that Julian is being used
for nefarious purposes. Julian finds Cara, Russell and the resupply team and
his Ultra agents restrain everyone but Cara. Steven teleports in to free
Russell and the others, while Cara is ambushed, beaten and throttled by Julian
until Steven throws a can at his head. Cara escapes along with Russell and co
and Steven pretends to have been called in for backup as an Ultra agent
(thankfully, Ultra keeps no log of such requests because REASONS, but then, it’s
not like Steven’s cover-agent status isn’t known to everyone).

John helps Astrid confront her fears by jumping out of a
moving train and teleporting them both. This may be why John did not take up a
career as a therapist. Of course this leads to “john talk to Cara” because that’s
the not-subtle theme of the episode

Speaking of, Cara and Russell come home to find that
Charlotte is missing, looking for John. She’s decided to go wandering saying
John’s name aloud rather than telepathically contacting him for REASONS! And
her presence is detected by Julian who decides to check it out – after tranqing
Steven to be extra sure the double agent doesn’t screw things up. Falling
unconscious, Steven sends a warning to John just as Charlotte is cuffed and
captured.

Steven storms into Ultra to confront Jedikiah about
Julian being evil. It achieves nothing because Jedikiah is evil and Steven has
forgotten. Again. Seriously he storms in expecting Jedikiah to be outraged
about Julian’s treatment of Charlotte – Jedikiah, the man who kept Charlotte in
a prison and performed torturous experiments on her.

John arrives at the Tomorrow People HQ to Russell’s joy –
he’s here to get his gun and help rescue Charlotte before Ultra get all her
info. He’s not here to rejoin. Cara doesn’t want him to go and John declares
that yes, he loves her, no he isn’t following orders and yes he is going ahead
with a ridiculous plan because it’s Tomorrow People and if people started
making good plans it would just make the rest look embarrassing.

Which prompts a flashback to John saving newbie Cara “we take care of each
other”.

At Ultra, Julian is trying to force his way into
Charlotte’s head while she screams and screams so horrendously that even Jedikiah
is moved – but Julian has already retrieved the info he needs. He refuses to
pass it on because he doesn’t trust Jedikiah and Jed won’t remove the bomb – so
instead he wants to hit the HQ himself… with a kill squad (this isn’t just “Julian
being evil” this means that he won’t take agents to the HQ so when he is
inevitably defeated, no-one else can pass on the info – it’s convenient writing).
Steven sees him leaving – and is invited to attend; he warns Cara who tells
John

Now why did Julian invite Steven? Well, as he tells Jedikiah, so he can stand
reaaaaallll close to him so if the bomb does go off and take off his head,
Stephen has a good chance of being taken out as well – and one of the kill
squad puts a suppression cuff on Stephen.

The tracker Jedikiah has on the squad stops working when
they go underground… didn’t everyone already know the hideout was underground?
Did he not expect this?

At the Tomorrow People HQ, Cara orders John to the
safehouse and he refuses. She then has a rather ineffectual tantrum that this
is why he left before, because he wouldn’t Respect Her Authoritay! John refuses
because he built this place with Cara, it’s home and he will be there with her
forever – and they kiss dramatically.

Russell’s also staying as well, by the way, in case
anyone cared. Cara has a plan that doesn’t involve her and Russell pinning the
kill team while John shoots them. Because, Reasons.

Instead it involves her apparently giving herself up. Julian orders someone to
shoot her, Steven intervenes and Cara teleports out. Of course, this exposes
Steven’s already laughably obvious loyalties. There follows John, Russell and
Cara teleporting in and out to confuse the bad guys (which they could have done
AND shot them, I’m just saying), eventually leading Julian and his minions into
a bullet proof cell (they had lying around) lined with d-chips (also
conveniently lying around) trapping them inside.

They’re also too far underground for Jedikiah to turn off
the bomb in his head (the fact this underground thing is such a disadvantage is
maybe they should have considered when hunting an underground resistance group,
I’m just saying). So BOOOOM.

Someone explain to me why this is morally superior to
John shooting them?

Steven goes to see Jedikiah who actually looks sad, since
he thinks Steven is dead (ah hell no, get Jedikiah OFF that Redemption Train
right now! NO NO NO we are not playing this game with the evil massacring
torturer, we are not). Steven claims Julian knocked him out and went off on his
own. Jedikiah apparently wants the war to end – and is sending Charlotte to the
Citadel kind of showing why it can’t. Russell rescues Charlotte who is being
escorted by one guard only…

And Steven goes home to find Astrid waiting and happy and
bright, all fears conquered

John and Cara have a moment and he’s apparently back –
and when Steven arrives TIM tells him they’re together and indisposed. Uh-huh.
So Steven fiddles with some junk which is, apparently, his father’s old
experiments that he’s never looked at before. One of them lights up. Steven is
really excited by this. I presume he’s never seen a torch before. Most people
grow out of the “ooh pretty lights” stage by his age. But the dramatic music
plays so I assume this is Important.

Julian found Cara because he told her about the place and
how easy it was to raid. So this supermarket has been consistently raided by
Cara for over 3 years… I think someone may have introduced some CCTV or
something in that time! And Cara hasn’t felt the need to change spots at all?
And how did Julian even know Cara would be running a supply run that night? It’s
not like she does it every night. Oh Tomorrow
People never let sense and logic get in the way of a story.

Speaking of – I am done with people making deals with Jedikiah. It’s beyond
ridiculous at this point – why do so many people trust him?! And it’s lazy
writing (the bomb thing has been done before as well, a few times) to
continually go back to the same plot points. And can Steven STOP appealing to Jedikiah’s
good side, it’s beyond ridiculous at this point.

I also question the use of helping Astrid confront her
fear by jumping out of a moving train (not her specific fear – beyond the
general “this is ridiculously suicidal” fear) and showing off the nifty super
powers of the super powered people, some of which are hunting her (her actual
fear).

And can someone tell me why Jedikiah’s kill squad is
willing to cuff Jedikiah’s nephew at the instructions of someone who isn’t even
an Ultra agent? And why was Julian trusted to question Charlotte anyway? And
why even lead a kill squad full of normal people with no means to stop the
teleporters from just LEAVING the minute they sensed the minds getting close?